Overview
- Park officials announced July 9 that individual and group tent sites at Three Mile Campground are closed through July 31, tent and hammock camping is prohibited, and reopening is targeted for Aug. 1 but may be extended.
- Staff reported the same wolf has been sniffing and pawing at tents, dragging backpacks away from camps, and entering a tent, behavior the National Park Service called signs of habituation and a growing reliance on human food.
- During the closure the park will intensify daytime hazing—shouting, stomping, clapping, airhorns and firing paintball rounds—and install noise-producing devices at Three Mile, Rock Harbor and Daisy Farm to warn people and deter the animal.
- Park staff will enforce 2026 food-storage rules and improve trash and recycling management to remove attractants, and Rock Harbor shelters will remain open while tent camping is restricted at Three Mile.
- Isle Royale’s wolves are long-studied residents, and park managers say they follow a sequence of responses—reduce attractants, haze and deterrence, site closures—with further actions possible only if the wolf remains habituated.